October i, 1883.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



251 



sion is completed, a large proportion of the high 

 estates will also be enabled to use maimre. The 

 nucessiti/ in this case will come at a considerably later 

 date ; but, of course, the benefits of manuring even 

 at the earliest stages of culture will be large. It 

 )nay be well iu future statistics to indicate whether 

 the acreage yielding a certain return has been manured 

 or merely kept clean and the pmnings buried by 

 means of forking. The latter process ought never to 

 be neglected. As to weeds, or '"jungle" as the 

 Indian planters term extraneous growths, we hope 

 we shall never in Ceylon adojit the Indian system. 

 Our soil, although evidently tirstrate for tea is not 

 -e(iual to the growth of tea and jungle. What Mr. 

 Armstrong says about the value of machinery in not 

 only saving labour and money but turning out su- 

 perior tea, is most encouraging. 'I'he idea to wliich 

 the old Indian planters naturally clung so tenaciously 

 and so long, in favour of tlie detergent and general 

 chemical effect of charcoal fumes on tea. as well as 

 its property of giving strong heat without smoke, 

 seems now relegated to the limbo of superstitions. 

 Mr Armstrong's experience enables him to deliver the 

 verdict that teas prepared in the Sirocco drier are 

 brisker and better than those fired (too often burnt) 

 over charcoal-stoves. Having recently seen a sifter 

 added to a roller and drier previously in use on the 

 estate in which we are interested, we can bear personal tes 

 timony to the comfort the machinery yields to the super- 

 intendents as well as the saving it secures to the pro- 

 prietors. And a fact much in our favour in most parts 

 of Ceylon is, that water is in the vast majority of cases 

 avaUaijle as the motive power for the machinerj'. In 

 proportion to area cidtivated, we must provide tea house 

 accommodation and withering space, far iu excess of 

 what is common in India. But the cause, about a doubled 

 average yield, is entirely in our favom-, even after the 

 exti'a cost of extra-covered room is counted. 



The proper withering of the tea-leaf is an essential 

 preliminaiy to goorl rolling,', BufEcient and not excessive 

 fermentation, and drying which secures crispuess without 

 an approach to bui-ning. The sm-face space which must 

 be provided for the withering of 4 lb. of green leaf, the 

 eiiuivalent of 1 lb . dry tea, looks enormous when stated 

 in feet ; but there can be no more false economy than 

 the restriction of withering room. The great object is 

 to get the tea leaf to deserve Theodore Hook's descrip- 

 tion of the voice of David Wilkie, as " soft and silky," 

 although we believe ' satiny " would be a better word 

 n the case of the tea leaves. Mr. Armstrong's advoc- 

 cacy of 50ib. half chests for the packing of our 

 Ceylon teas will be respectfully considered. Of course, 

 it will be important to adopt sizes of packages which 

 will give <a certain number for the space which 

 mercliants and shippers may finally decide on as the 

 cubic ton. At prcFcnt it is 50 feet, and the Ceylon 

 Company (Limited), as we showed some time ago, 

 make chests with reference to this measurement. The 

 facts that a single cooly can carry a 50 lb. -half-chest 

 and that this weight cloes not neces^itatt' the hooping 

 of the packagi* are imp rtant considerations. Of course 

 the greai qu stion of all, regarding ten, is, '• Will it 

 pay ?" and our readers will see that Mr. Armstrong, 

 from his own experience and from figures eupplied 

 by other growers, makes out a very aatiafactory case. 

 As most of the figures are for hand-made te.x, we must 

 take into account the saving to be effcc'ed by the 

 use of machinery. We mustaim at the production "f tea 

 at from 8d to lOd per lb. for the averaje, so that an 

 average selling price of Is. and over wnuld l^ave a so'^d 

 profit. The consumption of tea is, doubtless increasing, 

 but its production has been and is being largely 

 extended. With our large yield, our exp-rienced and 

 docile labour, our good means of c inmuuication and 

 our general nearness to port of shipment, we oug'it 

 to bo able to hold our own amongst our 



numerous competitors as tea growers. But it will 

 be observed that Mr. Armstrong is strongin ihe faith 

 that not only cfin we grow tea and coilee 

 advantageously on the same estate, but a variety of 

 other products. While sanguine about the new staple 

 product, Mr. Armstrong has by no means lostfaiih iu 

 old coffee. He believes in working estates containing 

 25 acres tea and 100 coffee, or vice versa, and wherever 

 there is coffee which produced wood, although it 

 does not ripen fruit, there, he insists tea can bo well 

 and profitably substituted. As long as we can re- 

 member we have editorially done our duty, by urging 

 the plaiiters to grow several products instead of one. 

 Leaf-disease cime at last to enforce the lesson. We 

 can, however, quite understand and make much allow- 

 ance for the devoting of exclusive attention lo that 

 which at one time paid so well. A few incidental 

 points may be noticed. Mr. Armstrong is right in 

 s.aying that the sooner taseed is in the ground, after 

 it 13 ripe, and gathen-d the better. Wo may add, 

 from our own experience, that many of the seeds force 

 themselves above ground in the procss of germin- 

 ation and rquire to be carefully pushed down or to 

 have fresh soil sprinkled over them. Our readers will 

 notice that Mr. Armslroug considers holes of 9 inches 

 sutfioient for tea plants put in amongst coffee, while 

 for stumps he advocated the orthodox 18x18. Mr. 

 Armstrong also records much higher gatherings of 

 green leaf than the usual average of 16'lb, 



TK,V AND COFFEE CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 

 (From the Proceedings of t/w. Dikoya Planters' 

 Amociation.) 

 Friday, 31st August, 1883. 



MU. ARJfSTRONO's PaPEK ON Te.\. 



The Chairman', in introducing Mr. Armstrong, 

 said he was doubtless already wellknown to all pre- 

 sent by the high reputation he had deservedly won 

 for the " Rookwood " tea, which had for some time 

 been the best known in Ceylon, and had lately been 

 awarded the gold medal at the Agri-Horticultural 

 Exhibition in Colombo. Mr. Armstrong had been tea- 

 planting for the past S yeais, and few were better 

 able to give them more reliable information as to 

 the desirability or not of planting tea at these high 

 altitudes. He would now ask Mr. Armstrong to 

 read his promised paper : — 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I have to thank you for 

 inviting me to attend today, and am glad to give you my 

 experience of the cultivation of Tea in Ceylon, and I trust 

 that the facts and figures, I shall have the pleasure to lay 

 before you, will imbue not only yourselves in this district, 

 but all of u.s, who jiave hitherto doubted — and we are now 

 very few — with courage, to turn any unreraunerative 

 coffee fields we m.iy possess into paying fields of tea, and 

 iu thus doing, I would still advise good bearing patches, 

 which ai'c to be found in every estite, to be kept as coffee, 

 even if only aggregating 50 acres. 200 acres of tea will allow 

 of this being kept in a high state o£ cultivation, without 

 any increase iu the labor force, as there are often, times 

 when one is glad to have some other product that would 

 employ one's labor, or a portion of it, for a few days, to the 

 advantage of the tea. \iiA the return from small patches 

 of coilee worked in this way, are almost nett prufit ; or on 

 the other hand, 5 acres even of tea may be worked to ad- 

 vantage with coffee. Do not let us, therefore, run into the 

 other extreme, but let us keep all the colfee we can, where 

 elevation and soil are suitable, and cultivate it highly 

 with the aid tea will give us. Let our endeavour be to have 

 as maoy products as our situation or elevation will allow 

 us to grow. Bad fields of coffee we ma\ have, hut bad coffee 

 estates, as a whole, I deny. As, at a meeting like this, time 

 will not permit mc to enter thoroughly into every detail 



